German Minister Calls on Municipalities to Speed up 5G Infrastructure Approval Procedures

German Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure Andreas Scheuer calls on municipalities to speed up approval procedures to install 5G mobile phone masts. Municipalities need between one and one and a half years to take a decision on placing new masts, he said to the DPA. Germany has a real mission ahead to triple or quadruple transmission infrastructure in order to have 5G nationwide, he said.

Another goal is to add 14,000 km of fibre to the already 18,000 km along the railways, to enable travelers to work without problems on the trains, he said. The auction rules for 5G frequencies set by the Federal Network Agency have the goal to provide 98 percent of households with fast mobile internet by 2022 and all major motorways, highways and railroads by 2024.

The German government has proposed to change the Telecommunication Law in order to enforce local roaming to close the gaps in mobile service in rural areas. However, the three major mobile operators Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica Germany, Vodafone alongside 1&1 and Freenet have filed a lawsuit against the 5G auction rules, saying the proposed changes create too much uncertainty.